Surrey mayor slams 'extraordinarily disrespectful' communication from province, vows to keep RCMP

Ninety minutes after Minister of Public Safety Mike Farnworth announced the province's recommendation that Surrey continue transitioning to a municipal police force and said he hoped the decision would end uncertainty, Mayor Brenda Locke dashed that hope.

Elected on a promise to keep the RCMP in Surrey, Locke vowed to do just that, and slammed Farnworth for a decision she claimed was politically motivated and "extraordinarily disrespectful."

"The B.C. Police Act states clearly: The choice of police is under the purview of the municipality," Locke told reporters at a news conference after the B.C. government announced its recommendation.

"Council made that decision. We made it five months ago. And our decision has not changed."

According to the province, the city's decision to continue down that path will not have financial support from the provincial government, and will be subject to several binding conditions to ensure adequate levels of policing are maintained.

• Read more: B.C. announces decision on Surrey police transition, recommends SPS 

Locke decried Farnworth's offer of financial support to help the city manage the estimated $30 million in additional annual costs that will come with operating the Surrey Police Service rather than the Surrey RCMP.

The mayor noted that Farnworth, who is also B.C.'s solicitor general, had previously warned that no additional provincial money would be forthcoming to cover the cost of the Surrey police transition.

Calling the province's decision "a recommendation with strings attached," Locke accused Farnworth of putting politics ahead of public safety.

"At the 11th hour, there is financial support from the province, so long as our decision is the SPS," she said. "It is clear to me that the solicitor general has a position on which force he would like, but politics – and not public safety in Surrey – appear to be the driving force behind his recommendation."

For his part, speaking at a news conference earlier in the day, Farnworth said his decision was based on a report by the provincial director of police services Glen Lewis.

That report showed, according to Farnworth, that continuing with the transition to the SPS would be the best way to achieve public safety province-wide. 

REDACTED REPORT, 'DISRESPECTFUL' COMMUNICATION

Locke told reporters she was not given a copy of Lewis' report until 20 minutes into Farnworth's announcement Friday morning, saying she had to email the minister's office to request it.

The mayor then held up a printed copy of the document to show those in attendance the black bars redacting large portions of it.

"How on Earth are we expected to make an informed decision?" she asked, asserting that Farnworth had access to the full, unredacted report and adequate time to consider it.

Asked about the report later in the news conference, Locke described it as a document "written by people in Victoria that don't understand the lay of the land in Surrey."

She also claimed that Farnworth had not spoken to her much during the months since she was elected, something she felt reflected a lack of adequate communication with Surrey as a whole.

"I have to tell you, there has not been, in my mind, an appropriate consideration of our city," Locke said. "I think it's been extraordinarily disrespectful, and I think what was presented today was, in fact, disingenuous."

BINDING CONDITIONS

If Surrey wishes to keep the RCMP, it will need to meet certain conditions set out in Lewis' report.

While the province's recommendation that Surrey proceed with the SPS is not binding, Farnworth said the conditions are.

They include that the city must hire a strategic implementation advisor for the reversion to RCMP, develop individualized human resources plans for the SPS and RCMP, and revise its plan to ensure that restaffing Surrey RCMP is not prioritized over filling other RCMP vacancies in the province.

The city will also be obligated to hire an RCMP senior contract officer and a senior transition leader from the BC RCMP who is not currently a part of the Surrey RCMP.

The SPS currently has more than 400 employees, making it the second-largest municipal police force in the province. SPS officers are currently deployed alongside Surrey RCMP officers, under the command of the RCMP.

Addressing the loss of these SPS employees and the restaffing of the RCMP was a primary concern expressed by Farnworth during his remarks Friday.

The minister said the RCMP already has 1,500 vacancies province-wide, though Mounties clarified Friday afternoon that roughly two-thirds of that figure are "soft vacancies," meaning the roles are filled, but the employee is on leave for one reason or another.

According to Lewis' report, the city's submissions to the province relied too heavily on the idea that SPS officers would be willing to switch to working for the RCMP.

Asked about the conditions on keeping the RCMP and concerns about maintaining adequate staffing in Surrey and across the province, Locke said she had spoken with the deputy commissioner of the Surrey RCMP and been assured that Mounties could meet the conditions.

On the question of staffing, she noted that the Surrey RCMP is currently fully staffed, though she did not acknowledge that many of the officers under the detachment's command are SPS employees, not RCMP officers.

"I understand that the solicitor general may have concerns, externally," Locke said. "He may have concerns with other areas of the province. That's not my problem, to be frank. I'm here to make sure that public safety is the best we can have in Surrey."

SPIRALLING COSTS

While the ongoing cost of transitioning to the SPS would be about $30 million more, per year, than keeping the RCMP, the province also found that there would be $72 million in severance pay costs associated with disbanding the SPS.

Locke acknowledged these costs, referring to them as "golden severance packages."

She also seemed to suggest that all costs associated with cancelling the police transition are the fault of the previous mayor and council – and the province – for initiating it in the first place.

"The truth is, the original decision to allow this transition to go ahead was rushed and done without due diligence, and Surrey taxpayers have been paying dearly for it ever since," Locke said.